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Vietnam celebrates 50th anniversary of reunification on

April 30

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Joy and fear as Saigon fell, US veteran recalls end of war

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Former foes are now close but Hanoi risks crippling US

duties

By Minh Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio

HO CHI MINH CITY/HANOI, April 29 (Reuters) - As a young

U.S. intelligence analyst in Saigon during the Vietnam War,

Chuck Searcy never thought that 50 years later he would be

living in Communist Vietnam and helping its people fight a

different war against unexploded mines.

The Vietnam War scarred a generation of U.S. soldiers, but

like many, Searcy returned to the old battleground and has

witnessed first hand the dramatic warming of relations between

the two former foes.

Searcy, 81, now lives in northern Vietnam as the

Communist-run nation celebrates 50 years since the end of the

war on April 30, known as Reunification Day.

But he still remembers the prophetic words of a South

Vietnamese soldier he met in the 1960s in Saigon, the capital of

the U.S.-backed South Vietnam that spent decades fighting

against Communist North Vietnam, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh

City after the war.

"Until you get out of our country, we will never get peace,"

Searcy recalls the man telling him.

Searcy declined to name the soldier but marvelled that while

he was America's ally, he nevertheless believed that North

Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh was the only figure respected by

the majority of the people and capable of bringing peace.

The Vietnam War lasted for two decades and killed nearly

60,000 Americans, many of them young soldiers drafted by their

government. Some three million Vietnamese died on both sides of

what is known in Vietnam as the American War.

But fewer and fewer Vietnamese have memories of the war.

Vietnam's median age is now below 35 and youths may rather link

the notion of a conflict with America to the current trade war.

Vietnamese youths crowd Starbucks ( SBUX ) cafes throughout the

country, and U.S. consumers buy "Made in Vietnam" goods -

contributing in the process to Vietnam's rapid economic growth.

The former foes have now turned into close economic

partners, with U.S. multinationals, such as Apple, Nike and

Intel, running large manufacturing operations in Vietnam.

HEALING WAR'S WOUNDS

After having experienced first-hand such legendary wartime

events as the 1968 Tet Offensive, Searcy left the military and

returned home to the United States, at least for a time.

He was in Atlanta when he watched on TV the fall of Saigon

on April 30, 1975 and the iconic takeoff of the last helicopter

from the roof of the U.S. embassy in the centre of the city.

"I felt this overwhelming sense of relief that it was over

after such a long agony," Searcy told Reuters.

Firmly in the anti-war camp at that point, Searcy

acknowledged that his elation for the end of the war "was mixed

with great concern" about Vietnamese friends who had supported

the U.S. army and whose lives may have been in jeopardy. Over 1

million Vietnamese left the country after the war ended.

However, expectations that things were about to change

brought him back to Vietnam 20 years later with a project for

the rehabilitation of children with disabilities caused by polio

and other diseases.

That was shortly after Washington had lifted its embargo on

Vietnam in 1994, giving people hope that a normalisation of

relations was possible, he said.

Searcy has remained in Vietnam since, having later

co-founded Project Renew, which helps people gravely injured by

mines and deploys teams of de-miners to clear the country from

unexploded ordnance out of the 5-8 million tons the Americans

dropped during the war.

He is still impressed by the resilience and pragmatism of

Vietnamese people, including these days when they face the

threat of crippling tariffs from the Trump administration which

could undermine the country's growth model.

"We are still making life very difficult for the

Vietnamese," said Searcy.